Page 94 of Bound to the Orc Warrior

“Hey!” I say. “I thought I really sold it.”

“Junior year,A Midsummer Night’sDream.” She raises an eyebrow. “Need I say more?”

I wince. My first and last attempt at acting hadn’t gone well—in my enthusiasm, I bellowed all my lines at the audience, and our high school auditorium is tiny. I might love literature, but I’m sadly not the person to bring it to life. “Fair point.”

“And”—she jabs a finger at the flock of birds hanging in place, wings beating eerily in unison—“those things are still around instead of being added in after like they do with special effects.”

Wranth scowls at the soul stealer, hand going to the balled-up shirt hanging from his sword belt. “We need to do something about them.”

“Another sluagh could come through at any moment,” Aldronn says, eying the door, which hovers in the air over me like a heat haze.

“What?” I yelp. Ferndale Falls is so not the place to have all of this go down. Main Street might not be bustling, but as the crowd shows, it’s still too busy for all of this.

In fact, Ms. Ellis, the drama teacher, stands near the front, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Shit! We need to move the door.” I pull the crystal out of my bra and waggle it in the air. “And I know just the place. Crystal Rock.”

It’s a rock formation near the waterfall that’s off any of the main trails. Only the locals know about it. But how are we going to get there? I can’t teleport right now. Even if Shadow shifts back into his panther form, that still leaves three people for Zephyr to carry. She’s strong, but orcs are heavy.

The sputter of an old engine echoes between the buildings as Joe’s vintage Ford pickup truck turns onto Main Street several blocks down.

I step into the middle of the pavement and flag him down, Wranth growling behind me the entire time.

When he rolls to a stop, Joe calls out through the open window, “Miss Naomi, what are you doing in the middle of the street? I know your parents taught you better.” His dark brown face creases in a smile when I laugh. He owns the town’s one gas station, out by the old interstate, and knows everyone.

“I’m hitching.” I stick out my thumb. It’s the thing we used to do when we were little to get him to take us to the gas station in the summer, so we could buy soft drinks and popsicles. “Can I get a ride out to the falls for me and my friends?”

He eyes first Wranth and Aldronn, then Zephyr and the naked Shadow grinning from her back. “Do I want to know what you kids are up to?”

“Nope.” I pop the p and shake my head.

“Go on, then,” he says. “Get in the back.”

“Thanks, Joe!” I flash him my biggest smile. “You’re the best.”

Wranth and Aldronn both glare at the truck as I drop the tailgate and wave them into the truck bed.

I clamber in after them and call out to Zephyr and Shadow, “You two, follow us!”

“Naomi, wait!” Hannah starts trotting down the sidewalk, keeping pace with Joe’s slow driving. “Are you coming back?”

“Yes,” I say. “I’ll come back and tell you everything. Tell Mom and Dad I’ll see them soon.”

The door to Faerie being open will change everything. I’ll be able to go back and forth without even using my powers. I might end up with the longest commute of anyone anywhere, but I’ll make it work.

Because I love Wranth.

And I want to be with him.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Wranth

I take the entwined crystal from my bride. If another sluagh comes through the door, my moon steel blade will be the first thing they meet.

The human contraption roars as we travel along one of their hard roads, Zephyr galloping behind us. Shadow slid from her back as soon as we left the town behind and runs in his feline form, flickering in and out of sight as he uses the shadow roads to keep up.

Soon, we enter a forest, one that’s a pale echo of Alarria’s. There aren’t any blue birch, and the green of the pine trees isn’t as vibrant. Only the faintest hint of magic hangs in the air. Still, it’s more than I felt last time I was here, so opening the doors of Faerie is already changing things. And compared to the altered forest of Avalon, these woods are green and alive.

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